Generally, an energy quantity discarded through high-temperature exhaust gas from total energy supplied to an internal combustion engine of a vehicle reaches 30% to 40% of the total energy, while an energy quantity used in actual power is only 20% to 30% of the total energy.
Therefore, a technology of recovering energy discarded through the exhaust gas has been developed. In particular, a thermoelectric power generation system for converting the heat from the exhaust gas into electric energy has been developed. The thermoelectric power generation system is configured to use a Seebeck effect which generates power when a difference in temperature is imparted to the thermoelectric element.
However, to mount the thermoelectric module in the existing vehicle, there is a need to change a shape of an exhaust system like extending an exhaust manifold or an exhaust pipe which is a passage of exhaust gas, forming a fin on the inner surface of an exhaust manifold or an exhaust pipe, etc. Further, there is also a need to change a shape of the thermoelectric module to be mounted in the exhaust system.
The change in the shape of the exhaust system may lead to a problem of exhaust pressure and therefore it is difficult to change the shape and the change in the shape of the thermoelectric module leads to reduce operation efficiency of the thermoelectric module.